SCHUMACHER — ANCIENT GRAVES IN CALIFORNIA. 345 



quite a picturesque landscape, which, together with theexcellenthunting- 

 ground, is really most invitiug for a settlement. Probably, ou closer 

 examiuatioD, the remains of a settlement might be found in the plain on 

 the right bank, where the elder-bushes give welaome shade to man and 

 beast. I have no doubt that the banks of Alamo Creek and the sur- 

 rounding country will yet yield many remains of former settlements, 

 as also the banks of the Santa Maria River and its tributaries, where, 

 besides the settlement of Walekhe, which 1 explored, there are two 

 others, known to the ever-roving Vaqueros. 



With regard to the general character of the domestic utensils, arms, 

 and ornaments which I found in examining about three hundred skele- 

 tons in the graves of Kes-mali, Te-me-te-ti, Ni-po-mo, and Wa-le-khe, 

 they all resemble each other very closely, seeming to show that their 

 possessors all belonged to the same tribe. First of all, the large cooking- 

 pots attract attention. They consist of globular or pear-shaped bodies, 

 hollowed out of magnesian mica. The circular opening, having a small 

 and narrow rim, measures only live inches in diameter in a pot with a 

 diameter of eighteen inches. 'Nea.v the edge of the opening, this vessel 

 is only a quarter of an inch thick, but its thickness increases in a very 

 regular manner toward the bottom, where it measures about one and a 

 quarter inches. Made of the same material, I found other pots of a 

 diflerent shape, namely, very wide across the opening, and narrowing 

 toward the bottom. With these I have also now in my possession many 

 different sizes of sandstone mortars, of a general semiglobular shape, 

 varying from three inches in diameter and one inch and a half in height 

 to sixteen inches in diameter and thirteen inches in height, all external 

 measurements, with pestles of the same material to correspond. There 

 were, further, quite an assortment of cups, measuring from one and a 

 quarter to six inches in diameter, neatly worked out of serpentine, and 

 polished. The smallest of these was inclosed, as in a doubly-covered 

 dish, by three shells, and contained paint, traces of which, by the way, 

 were found in all these cups, from which we may suppose that they 

 were not xised for holding food. 



Neither spoons nor knives were found in these graves. I got, how- 

 ever, three beautiful serpentine pipes, shaped like cigar-holders, much 

 stronger than, but similar in shape to, those found in Oregon. Not 

 many weapons were picked up here, only a few arrow and spear heads; 

 these, however, were mostly of exquisite workmanship. A spear-head 

 of obsidian, five and a half inches long, was' the only object I found of 

 this material; another lance-point of chalcedony, nine and a half inches 

 long and one and a quarter inches wide, was beautifully shaped and 

 carefully made. 



A remarkable object is a bronze cup which was found at Te-mc-te-ti. 

 It was filled with red paint, and contained also the pretty paint-cup in- 

 closed in the three shells mentioned before. I also found in the same 

 grave, a Spanish coin of the last century, and a bronze buckle, 



